At the tip of final week’s episode, Kino Loy (Andy Serkis) revealed that there are solely ever twelve guards on obligation, and with Episode 10 of Andor, Cassian (Diego Luna) plans to take full benefit of the Empire’s weaknesses. But even after studying that nobody is getting off Narkina 5, Kino continues to be hesitant about pushing again in opposition to the Imperial Officers—he’s nonetheless satisfied that they’ve the ability within the state of affairs. Of course, Cassian doesn’t see it that means, as a result of “power doesn’t panic.” Since his arrival on the Imperial manufacturing unit facility, he has seen the best way the officers scramble to cowl shifts and battle with sustaining management. He’s additionally noticed that the officers are at their weakest after they introduce new prisoners to their unit, which suggests they must act quick within the wake of Ulaf’s (Christopher Fairbank) loss of life.
Cassian’s insistence that the tide goes to alter for them pushes Kino right into a disaster of religion. He’s nonetheless desperately clinging to the concept he would possibly really end his sentence and be let off Narkina 5. He has been a mannequin prisoner: he’s stored his head down and adopted guidelines, overseen the work of different prisoners, and finished what he was speculated to do. But Cassian is aware of, firsthand, that it doesn’t matter if you happen to do the appropriate factor — the Empire goes to discover a cause to lock folks up, hold them locked away, or kill them. It’s solely after Cassian tells Kino, “I’d rather die trying to take them down than give them what they want.” that Kino lastly sees what they must do. At first, not one of the different prisoners imagine Cassian when he reveals what occurred on Level 2, however Kino lastly snaps and confirms that every part is true and nobody is getting out.
While the rebellion on Narkina 5 takes middle stage in Episode 10, Andor doesn’t lose sight of the opposite plots unfolding throughout the galaxy. At the Imperial Security Bureau, Dedra Meero (Denise Gough) and the remainder of the ISB have a good time their profitable mission after Kreegyr’s males fell for the entice they set with the pilot. But one of many ISB officers doesn’t appear as jubilant as the remaining. Lonni Jung (Robert Emms) cautions them that they don’t wish to elevate any suspicions with Kreegyr and his males, so with the intention to sustain the established order they might want to “take an interest” within the pilot’s loss of life. While this scene appears pretty simple, it additionally brings Lonni into the foreground and prepares audiences for the twist on the finish of the episode.
Of course, the rebels aren’t the one ones to have put in a spy to look at their enemies. On Ferrix, a gaggle of locals and Doctor Mullmoy (Matt Dunkley) speak amongst themselves about the truth that Maarva isn’t taking her medication as a result of it’s placing her off her meals. That scene well showcases that not solely is Cinta (Varda Sethu) maintaining a tally of Maarva’s home—however Corv (Naoufal Ousellam) has been left behind to look at what’s occurring round Cassian’s childhood house. While Corv and Cinta don’t essentially cross paths, it looks as if Andor could also be getting ready audiences for Cinta to run into bother on Ferrix.
On Coruscant, Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) is dealing with the implications of agreeing to go together with Tay’s (Ben Miles) plan to work with Davo Sculdun (Richard Dillane) with the intention to funnel their cash below the Empire’s radar. The three of them are very cautious with how they communicate in regards to the state of affairs, although it’s simply seemingly the three of them in Mothma’s residence. There’s a whole lot of doublespeak wrapped inside Davo’s questioning about her marriage to Perrin (Alastair Mackenzie) and his reward for “the old ways” on Chandrila. He makes an attempt to strain Mon into admitting that she and Tay are on the lookout for a extra fluid banking state of affairs for his or her basis, one thing that may enable him to “bundle” their monetary contributions to keep away from scrutiny from the Empire’s cumbersome oversight—however she rapidly realizes he isn’t going to provide her any of this with out one thing being given in return.
While he has little interest in charging them a charge for serving to their “charity,” he does want to organize a gathering between his teenage son and her 13-year-old daughter Leida (Bronte Carmichael). Andor has proven what a depressing relationship Mon has with Perrin and has made some extent of addressing that they had been trapped in an organized marriage, and Mon’s panic is palpable as she realizes that her personal daughter is perhaps damned to face an identical state of affairs to ensure that her to comply with the vow she made to the rebels. Even after Davo assures her that he isn’t on the lookout for a betrothal for his son, Mon refuses to even think about the supply—however Davo factors out that that’s unfaithful. If they intend to maintain the inspiration’s monetary actions below the radar, Mon goes to have to just accept Davo’s supply, and that realization practically brings her to tears.
Back on Narkina 5, the following day has arrived and Kino offers the prisoners in his unit a rallying speech about how they’re finished counting shifts. His perspective has fully shifted now that the fact of their state of affairs has absolutely set in. He tells them there’s solely then and now: he not cares about residing or dying as a result of he’s assuming he’s already useless. What’s so fascinating about this level, that Beau Willimon’s script appears to be driving house, is that this can be a theme that’s carried inside Cassian right through to the occasions on Scarif. From this level ahead Cassian lives like he is aware of he’s going to die—and we, as an viewers, know that he’s going to provide every part to make sure the Empire doesn’t win. Narkina 5 is the small, flickering flame that lights the forest hearth inside him.
The prisoners aren’t the one ones on edge after the “disruption” on Level 2. The Imperial officers warn the prisoners on the skybridge that nobody is allowed to talk throughout shift switch, and so they push the thought of collective punishments for non-compliance. The officers might not know what’s about to occur, however it’s clear that they acknowledge that they’ll solely include the prisoners for thus lengthy as soon as phrase will get out about what actually occurred to Level 2. Once they settle into the shift, Taga (Tom Reed) begins stressing that he’s going to die and Cassian makes an attempt to calm him down, although there’s a very actual likelihood that none of them are going to make it off Narkina 5 alive.
Like with “Nobody’s Listening,” Cassian takes off to the more energizing throughout his break and resumes sawing away on the pipe together with his makeshift shiv. This time, nonetheless, he has to achieve chopping by way of the pipe fully earlier than the prisoner switch is full. The stress mounts as he struggles with it, resorting to pulling and prying at it whereas the countdown begins to get on program earlier than they’re all punished for non-compliance. As the officers step onto the platform above him, Cassian manages to chop the pipe and make it again into the primary room simply as Birnok (Rasaq Kukoyi) will get into place. The officers are working behind, and of their haste to get the switch accomplished they’re solely oblivious to the very fact Cassian is soaking moist, {that a} pipe is leaking, and that each one the prisoners are beginning to arm themselves with their gear. Ham (Clemens Schick) and Xaul (Josef Davies) begin a combat to trigger a good greater distraction, shopping for Cassian time to interrupt the carry whereas Birnok jumps onboard to take out the guards. As hell begins to interrupt free, the prisoners begin throwing their instruments and the gear that they’ve been pressured to make on the guards—turning the product of the imprisonment into their weapons.
In a last-ditch try and waylay the inevitable, the Imperials officers flip the flooring on, however the prisoners handle to leap up onto the worktables to keep away from being fried, and, with the water from the leak cascading throughout the ground and soaking by way of the poor building, the short shock of electrical energy causes the power to brief out and primarily cripples it.
With the flooring shut off, the prisoners are in a position to make their escape, climbing up the carry and spilling into the sterile corridors of the manufacturing unit. Kino and Cassian head as much as the place the command middle is, whereas Melshi (Duncan Pow) and the remainder of the surviving prisoners make their method to liberate the remainder of the manufacturing unit. When Kino and Cassian arrive within the command middle, they uncover it’s simply three guys manning the room, and the one which has been the voice of God is utilizing a filter to control his voice to sound extra intimidating. In actuality, he’s only a spindly officer who’s fast to cower when one among his fellow officers is shot useless. Cassian makes them shut off the flooring all through the power, however turning them off isn’t sufficient—he desires them to chop the ability to your complete facility to place an finish to the torture as soon as and for all.
In an absolute energy transfer after weeks of being pressured to face on program and obey their each command and rule, Cassian forces the 2 officers to get a style of submission. Even although he has been the architect behind their escape, Cassian realizes that he can’t be the one to provide the rallying cry to the remainder of the prisoners; it needs to be Kino as a result of he’s the one which tells them what to do day by day. Reluctantly, Kino stands earlier than the mic and informs everybody within the manufacturing unit that the prisoners are actually in command of the power, nevertheless it’s very a lot a weak, half-hearted announcement. Cassian prods Kino to do higher than that and, in typical Andy Serkis type, he delivers a soul-stirring speech that comes with Cassian’s profound phrases from the beginning of the episode. What’s so profound about these phrases—“I’d rather die trying to take them down than give them what they want”—is that it’s primarily what Luthen (Stellan Skarsgård) informed Cassian when he was attempting to get him to spend money on the Aldhani mission: “Wouldn’t you rather give it all at once to something real than carve off useless pieces till there’s nothing left?” This is why authoritarian regimes attempt to silence and suppress rebellious speech, as a result of they know the way highly effective it’s when concepts are shared and handed alongside. All it takes is one spark.
As the prisoners begin to break freed from their workrooms and cells, Kino tells them, “If we can fight half as hard as we have been working, we’ll be home in no time.” But as they make their upward ascent to the loading dock the place they had been first dropped at the manufacturing unit, Kino makes a chilling discovery that solidifies his perception that he was already useless. The manufacturing unit is situated in the course of an unlimited ocean, and he can’t swim. As Cassian strikes to the sting, victorious and hopeful, he seems again and watches as Kino realizes his destiny has been sealed. Before the 2 males are in a position to actually say goodbye to 1 one other, Cassian is knocked off the ledge within the rush to freedom. While Cassian and Melshi handle to make it to shore—Kino’s destiny is left unknown, although it’s simple to extrapolate.
Earlier within the episode, Kleya (Elizabeth Dulau) involves Luthen and informs him that there have been markings left across the metropolis indicating that somebody desires to fulfill with Luthen. It’s been over a 12 months because the final contact was made, and with every part that has been occurring, Kleya is nervous that it could possibly be a entice. If it’s a entice, Luthen doesn’t appear very pressed about it and takes the assembly in opposition to what appears to be higher judgment.
As anticipated, within the decrease ranges of Coruscant, which stand in stark distinction to the austere grandeur of locations like Mon Mothma’s residence, Lonni makes his method to rendezvous with Luthen. At first, Luthen doesn’t reveal himself, opting to have a dialog with Lonni over the com system in a carry, which is the place Luthen makes it clear that he’s been watching Lonni. Since the final time they spoke, Lonni has turn into a brand new father and Luthen slyly makes use of that data as leverage to make sure that Lonni hasn’t lured him right into a entice, which he hasn’t. Instead, Lonni has come to inform Luthen all about Dedra and her theories in regards to the Axis, how she’s tearing Ferrix aside to attempt to determine who the center man was that was aiding the thief they’re monitoring down. Luthen largely feigns disinterest in Lonni’s intel, claiming that Dedra is losing her time and claiming that he had nothing to do with Aldhani, in truth, he declined to be concerned in it in any respect. Lonni continues to attempt to appease him with the data he has gathered, he reveals the plot with the pilot’s loss of life, warns him about Spellahuse, and Luthen begins to understand why Lonni is telling him all of this data, so he assures him that he’s prepared to lose fifty of Kreegyr’s males if it means preserving Lonni positioned throughout the Empire.
Finally, Lonni and Luthen meet face-to-face so Lonni can admit that the one cause he organized the assembly was in order that he might inform Luthen that he was finished and that he was planning to stop the ISB as a result of he simply can’t deal with the stress anymore. Luthen is fast to level out that Lonni’s plan is ridiculous as a result of the ISB wouldn’t let him go any greater than he intends to let him go. After six years of working his means by way of the ranks, he’s caught.
Broken by every part he has needed to sacrifice for the trigger, Lonni questions Luthen about what he has sacrificed, as a result of to him, it doesn’t appear like Luthen is struggling the best way he has. Everything shifts in Luthen’s expression as he places to phrases what he has sacrificed to make sure the rise up survives. He has sacrificed calm, kindness, kinship, and love. He shares his desires with ghosts and yearns to be a savior in opposition to injustice. He burns his decency for another person’s future. He burns his life to make a dawn that he won’t ever see. He has sacrificed every part for the rise up. And this seals all of their fates, primarily. Once you’re a part of the rise up, a part of the motion, there isn’t a stopping. In order to be the spark for another person’s flame, some a part of you has to burn.
The Narkina 5 arc has delivered some actually awe-inspiring ideas, themes, scene designs, and performances. Serkis, Skarsgård, and Forest Whitaker had been powerhouses inside these three episodes, delivering performances that showcased each massive feelings and the refined ones restricted to shifting seems and curled lips. But on the coronary heart of all of the turmoil was Luna’s efficiency as Cassian got here to phrases together with his state of affairs. From this level ahead, it looks as if Cassian will not be capable of sit on the sidelines and watch the Empire—he’s going to must take motion and combat again with actual objective.
Rating: A
Andor is streaming now on Disney+.